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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29080839">Just One Of Those Days</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JMount74/pseuds/JMount74'>JMount74</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Thunderbirds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Gunshot, Medical Procedures, Mentions of Blood, leeches</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:47:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,934</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29080839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JMount74/pseuds/JMount74</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Back to back rescues both on Earth and in space? Check. Just another one of those days. </p><p>But with the Tracys scattered about, the next routine mission takes a turn for the worst for Scott, leaving the rest to scramble to help him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Trap</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Flygirl/gifts">Just_Another_Flygirl</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This has been a story thrashed out between myself, Tsari and Nutty, and based on a prompt challenge by Just_Another_Flygirl, who challenged me with aliceinwhumperland’s whump word(s) of the day: ‘Are those…leeches?’ </p><p>What follows will now be a mini-fic of about 6 chapters, and I promise the prompt is there…somewhere!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Scott rolled his neck and stretched his arms above his head. It was turning out to be one of those days. He’d just come back from his second rescue to refuel both his ’bird and himself before heading off for his third. While waiting for the bots to finish checking One over, he was in the lounge, cramming a slice of left-over pizza. Virgil must have stopped off on his way back to refuel then got called out. Again.</p>
<p>Time to check on his brothers. Calling EOS, because he knew that John and Alan were out on their own mission, he asked for an update on everyone. John and Alan were on the other side of Mars, assisting the colonists after a major storm. They were just about wrapping their mission up and would probably be finishing around the time Scott started his. Virgil and Gordon were in the North Sea, where an oil rig had been damaged after being hit by a ship. They were about halfway through theirs.</p>
<p>He nodded. Kayo and Penny were off doing their thing, and Grandma – Grandma was right beside him suddenly, nudging his shoulder. She was helping keep an eye on communications. And the beeping of his watch showed that it was time for him to leave.</p>
<p>Mission number three was not going to be easy, and Virgil and Gordon would join him when they had completed theirs. It was an illegal cobalt mine in Papua New Guinea, hidden by the vast rainforest that covered most of island. Finding a place to land One would be tricky. Thankfully, by the time Scott was in the air for the short hop over EOS had found a remote village that had a temporary airport and was less than 20 miles from the rescue area. </p>
<p>Flying over the area, it looked like someone had decided on a whim to cut a runway out of the jungle, with the village centred around the top end. He’d need to land one then head off west on foot, the jungle was too dense for anything else. Scott mused on whether he could use his jetpack to fly over the trees to the mine but decided it would be useless due to the fuel needed. So he set out on foot, taking with him two collapsed stretchers and the first aid kit.</p>
<p>It was hot. Hot and sweaty. His uniform regulated the heat as best it could, but under the trees there was no fresh air. While he walked he reviewed what he knew. Cobalt mines were nasty. There were few of them left any more because they tended to be treacherous. The area would have had all the trees cut back to make it easier to move anything dug up, but the mine itself would be a simple series of holes dug straight down to the central mine, each hole only just big enough for a man to fit down. For years it had been the final resting place of children used to get into such small areas, even though such behaviour was illegal, and Scott ferverntly hoped that there would be no children here.</p>
<p>There was little hope for the four people said to be trapped. These kinds of mines had no supports in them and collapses were frequent and deadly. But one of them had managed to get a signal out and here he was. </p>
<p>Suddenly, out of the jungle loomed a temple, almost completely hidden by the trees and vines, but it must have been amazing when it was being used. The architecture was stunning, and Scott took five minutes to catch his breath and admire it. Virgil would love this. It was almost like that temple in that old kids film they used to watch – Jungle Book. It gave Scott a reason to smile as he recalled how Gordon spent the rest of the day after watching it trying to swing from furniture to furniture and not touch the ground, insistent that he was a monkey.  Shaking himself from the memory, he moved on. Not far now.</p>
<p>Reaching the cleared area, Scott wondered if he could have set One down here, she would have fitted – just – but that may have caused a further cave-in. It did mean that they had a clear area for Two to send down the rescue platform to take the injured up, and Scott began to feel a little better. If he had needed to traipse them through the jungle he would have doubted their chances.</p>
<p>Sure enough, there was no-one on the surface to talk to, and there were three holes in the ground. Scott assumed that they had taken the farthest hole as some kind of rudimentary pulley system had been set up, with a strong rope descending. It was pitch black down there, so he activated a glow stick and watched it fall. Quite deep then. Time to let everyone know what was going on.</p>
<p>Hitting the comms button brought Grandma, EOS, John and Alan online. No one was happy about him going down the hole, but without a mole pod from Two there was little he could do about it. EOS showed them all a scan of the mine. Once Scott had reached the bottom the mine opened out into a series of large caverns, and there, clustered at the end furthest from the hole, was four life signs. Ground appeared stable, and the hole was large enough for Scott to move through. Virgil would not have fit, and even Gordon, with his wide swimmers shoulders, would have had difficulty. Grandma instructed him to keep his comm open as he went down, and Scott agreed. He hoped that Virgil would call with an update soon.</p>
<p>Going down the hole was an experience he would like to forget. It was still a tight fit, and his shoulders felt a little knocked about by the time he had hit the bottom. The cavern was dimly lit by the glow stick, and Scott left it there, activating more and dropping them at regular intervals. </p>
<p>Scott began to feel uneasy. The mine was quiet, and he expected that after a cave-in, but there was something about this place that felt wrong. It felt abandoned. He murmured his suspicions over the comms quietly, he didn’t want to cause another cave-in, but he knew that four life signs needed investigating and carried on, only half listening as John instructed EOS to try to boost the scans and Virgil warned about being more cautious.</p>
<p>Virgil’s warnings proved to be prophetic, as did Scott’s gut. Passing through another tunnel into the last cavern he was confronted with the four life signs. Four men who were clearly not unconscious or injured in any way. And they were armed and surrounding him.</p>
<p>His family listened in horror as a short scuffle followed, and a single gunshot rang out. Their horror mounted as the men discussed caving the cavern in, but they ultimately decided just to leave Scott there. They listened to the men leaving.</p>
<p>With Three just about to leave Mars and Two wrapping up the oil rig disaster on the other side of the world, no-one was available to get to Scott for some time. And with Scott not answering his comm, all they could do was hope.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Bait</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>There is nothing Scott hates as much as being bait for his brothers.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>To say that the four gunmen took Scott by surprise would be untrue. He had begun to feel suspicious in the previous cavern, sure, but this seemed like overkill. Four men just for him? They all jumped him at once and he had a really good chance.</p><p>And then one of them shot him. </p><p>It wasn’t the first time he had been shot. It wasn’t even the first time he’d been shot on a rescue. But for some reason this one seemed to hurt more. Maybe it was just psychological, because this time he knew none of his brothers were in the immediate vicinity, or maybe it was because he knew that they all would have heard it. He kept quiet while the men decided whether to collapse everything on top of him, holding his breath until they decided not to.</p><p>But he dared not answer his comm once the men had left. Because he wasn’t alone. Seated at the opposite end of the cavern, obviously cloaked because four life signs only had registered, was the one man he hoped never to see. Sitting impassively on an outcrop, sat the Hood. Just staring at him. So Scott ignored the calls of his Grandma and stared back.</p><p>When the Hood didn’t seem inclined to move or comment, Scott dragged himself backwards until he was propped against the wall, wondering if he should risk telling his family what was going on. The bullet had gone through the side of his thigh, so no broken bone but two holes meant he was bleeding quite a bit. He’d left a trail.</p><p>Suddenly the Hood stood up and walked over, soundless footsteps not giving anything away. He was holding something in his hand, and Scott watched in apprehension as he threw whatever it was high up onto the cavern wall. Immediately the sounds from his comm stopped. A cloaking device. Now that there was complete silence from everything, the Hood had his complete attention.</p><p>‘I can’t say that I’m surprised it was you who attended, but I had hoped it would be your younger brothers that came. Still, it is of no matter. They will come for you and that is all that counts.’</p><p>Scott stared at him. The thought that this had been set up to deliberately target Gordon – Virgil would never have made it down that hole, and actually it was questionable whether Gordon could with his swimmers shoulders – fired up his blood. As did the fact that the gunshot was just a way of keeping him under control, and possibly his brothers too, and now Scott was really angry. </p><p>The Hood must have seen that anger, for he simultaneously smiled and pulled out his own gun. Grinning like the cat that got the mouse – for that’s exactly how Scott felt – the Hood backed up to his original seat.  ‘Well, we seem to have some time on our hands. Why don’t you fill it by telling me about your machines and your base?’ Scott ignored him. Getting a bandage out from the tiny first aid kit he carried around, he proceeded to wrap his leg, trying hard not to let the fact that the Hood was watching him, seemingly amused, bother him too much. He was quite thankful that the Hood didn’t really seem in a talkative mood.</p><p>Scott knew he was in for a long wait. He hated being bait for his brothers.</p><p>TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB</p><p>Virgil hated being in this situation. Being on the other side of the world when a brother was in trouble sent his nerves into hyperdrive. Thankfully, they were almost finished, he just had to pick up Four and drop off the riggers and sailors. He’d already warned them that they would be dropped at the nearest landing place on the coast and had called the local coastguard to arrange transport for them.</p><p>It would take Two, at top speed, almost an hour and a half to get to Papua New Guinea, and that was before they found Scott. Grandma was regularly trying to raise him, but it had been five minutes and still nothing. Five minutes might not seem long, but the gunshot made it feel like half an hour. Why did he have to be so far away? At least they were closer than John and Alan.</p><p>John was cursing in…no wait, Alan knew this one…German he guessed from the guttural sounds. And Alan felt like joining him – in English – only Grandma was listening. Although they were already on their way back, they were still at least two hours away, and there was a dread that was pooling in the pit of his stomach at the thought that Virgil and Gordon were going in alone. There was no way that they would wait, not with Scott not answering his comm, despite the near certainty they were entering a trap.</p><p>The cursing got louder, more exotic and involved more brothers when EOS suddenly announced ten minutes later that she had lost Scott’s signal. Fifteen minutes after that there were four life signs approaching One directly. John and Grandma both instructed EOS to initiate defence protocol gamma, and they all watched with some satisfaction as four men bounced off. It didn’t stop them from trying again. And again. And again. </p><p>They kept their comms open the entire time, but no-one spoke. It wasn’t until Two was on the verge of arriving that John and Virgil began discussing how they were to go forward. Needing to get to Scott was their top priority, but it had to be done while keeping Two safe, and there was no way Virgil was going to stay in Two while Gordon went down alone, military training or not.</p><p>TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB</p><p>Scott was almost relieved when the Hood suddenly stood up and left, nothing had been said for ages, and the sitting still had caused his leg to go numb. Cautiously, and using the wall to help, Scott stood up and almost promptly collapsed again as his leg refused to bear his weight initially, but he grit his teeth. He needed to find out what the Hood was up to. It certainly wouldn’t be good news for any of his brothers.</p><p>The ten-minute walk through the caverns took forever, but Scott noticed that the Hood’s light footprints had not left the same way that he had come. Torn between getting out now and following the Hood, he decided that the Hood was more of a priority. He needed to get there now, the Hood had too much of a head start and Scott was beginning to fear what he was up to. It became more evident that this was a well-planned job when Scott noticed those small signal disruptors throughout the pathway he was following, always up higher than he could reach.</p><p>He didn’t have far to go. The cavern ended in a set of ancient steps carved into the stone, and Scott carefully made his way up. The stairwell gave way to a crumbling corridor, and Scott realised with a start he was in the temple he had passed before. That wasn’t all he realised.</p><p>He could hear Two, and while she was a very welcome sound, it was also worrying. Because he didn’t know where the Hood was. </p><p>It was at that moment he heard the whoosh. It was a sound he was very familiar with, one he had not heard in years, one that made his blood run cold. He knew what a rocket propelled grenade sounded like.</p><p>Two might be built like a tank, but that didn’t mean she could take a hit like one. Especially if one knew just where to hit. Which evidently the Hood did, for Scott could hear the screaming of VTOL struggling to cope and the crashing of his brother’s ’bird as it crashed through the jungle.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Snare</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Two is down, and Scott still has to be found. A slight brush with some native wildlife and it's Virgil and Gordon to the rescue.</p>
<p>Or is it?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Virgil was wrestling with the controls of his beloved bird. He’d had seconds of warning before whatever missile that was took out one of his VTOL’s and caused some major damage. </p>
<p>They were going down.</p>
<p>They were going down in one of the remotest jungles in the world. Two was screaming at him, her voice panicking him almost as much as EOS’ shout about a missile had. But this wasn’t Virgil’s first rodeo, not the first missile to have hit home. What was tricky was getting a good landing despite the trees. Steering was hard, and he listened as EOS talked about a cleared patch for landing. It wasn’t anywhere big enough for his girl, but it would be preferable to the alternative.</p>
<p>The only problem was it was directly above Scott’s last known position. Virgil really did not want to think how crashing Two down on top of an illegal mine might affect his eldest brother, he prayed that Scott had, somehow, managed to move from the mine. After all, his signal had been abruptly lost so it made sense to Virgil that his brother had been moved and cloaked so that they did not know where.</p>
<p>Yeah. That was the reason.</p>
<p>Either way, Two was landing on the clearing whether she should or not. She skimmed the clearing and ploughed into the trees. The noise was horrific, and the scrapping along her hull set his teeth on edge. That was going to be hell to clean up. He ignored the damage he knew the missile had caused. </p>
<p>By the time Two had come to a stop – gently and not abruptly as he had feared – they were quite a distance from the mine entrance. Virgil patted Two’s console affectionately. Once again she had saved their lives, and although he could hear Gordon grumbling about the distance they would have to walk through the hot jungle, he knew from his brother’s tone that he was just as relieved. </p>
<p>Now they had to find Scott while still keeping Two and One safe.</p>
<p>Virgil thought about getting Gordon to stay with his ’bird but immediately dismissed it. There was no way Gordon would stay behind while there were four potential gunmen around, and as Virgil turned to face his co-pilot Gordon had already picked up the trank gun and was almost ready to leave. He certainly wasn’t going to leave Scott, so Virgil called EOS and told her to initiate protocol gamma on Two, giving her permission to do anything she saw fit to keep out the men.</p>
<p>The swathe that Two had cut through the jungle made both brothers wince. But it did give them a clear path back. As they made their way back to the clearing they kept silent, listening to the sounds of the jungle and keeping ears peeled for other human sounds. There was an eerie quiet that was unnatural, and Virgil supposed the noise he had made landing Two had caused this. Following the tracks it soon became evident that he had not come down in a straight line but had slewed about a bit.</p>
<p>At some point they had ploughed through what seemed to be a small stream, but as they waded across Gordon lost his footing and took a dunking. Coughing and spluttering as Virgil hauled him up, he started cursing whoever was responsible for their current predicament. Reaching the other side Virgil was visibly amused that his fish of a brother was upset by his impromptu swim. Gordon glared at him. He raised an accusatory hand, jabbing his big brother in the chest. </p>
<p>‘It’s not funny!’ he fumed, causing Virgil to laugh out loud. But as Gordon lowered his arm, Virgil spotted something that was definitely not good, and he lunged forward to prevent Gordon moving any further.  Gordon stared. ‘What the hell, Virg?’ In reply his brother simply lifted his arm higher and twisted it slightly.</p>
<p>There, on his upper arm was…was something. It was glossy with slime, around five centimetres long and, to Virgil’s eyes, quite beautiful. Shades of brown and black with a chain-like pattern on its back, firmly attached to Gordon’s wetsuit.</p>
<p>‘Is…is that a leech?’ Gordon asked, slightly put out by the audacity of the creature on his arm. Virgil nodded, very thankful that they were in uniform. Neoprene was not going to be a material the leech would like. Time to check there was nothing dangerous. ‘EOS, can you identify this leech and if we need to take any precautions,’ Virgil asked, showing the leech to the AI.</p>
<p>‘It is a species of Phytobdella Catenifera. This particular one in Papua New Guinea is known to be zoonotic, but as long as there are no tears in Gordon’s suit there should not be a problem.’ Gordon rolled his eyes. ‘Great. Just great. And how are we supposed to remove it?’ EOS paused. ‘There are three methods that can be employed. Many sites advocate salting the leech or using alcohol, and it will die; others say you need to use heat and it will drop off. The other method is to use your nail to slide under the mouth part and flick it off when it lets go.’ They shared a look. ‘Ok, Virg, you’re up. Use your nail please, I don’t want to kill it.’ The leech came off the neoprene very easily and after checking there were no more clinging to his brother, they set off again.</p>
<p>It took 25 minutes from the time they crashed down to the moment they reached the mine. It looked like the sudden landing had not affected the hole in the ground that was the entrance.  There had been no sign of the four men or of Scott – or anyone else for that matter, and Gordon was on edge. It looked like Virgil would have to stay above ground and that did not please either of them.</p>
<p>Well, needs must, and Virgil prepared to lower Gordon down into the mine.</p>
<p>TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB</p>
<p>Scott had attempted to follow the Hood as he made his way to where Two had crashed. At least that is where Scott assumed he was heading. The sounds his brother’s ’bird had made had been awful, and he was desperate to know his brothers were alright. But walking through the jungle with a hole in his leg was hard work. Thank god for trees. </p>
<p>Still, he was hyperaware that the sounds gradually returning to the place were drowning out any other sounds. He swore at one point he heard a splash, but he hadn’t come across anything that could have caused it. Nor had he come across any trace of the four men or the Hood, and didn’t that just unnerve him even more.</p>
<p>He felt like he had been walking forever when he finally crossed the path Two had carved through the jungle. He couldn’t see Two yet, and he was debating whether he should make his way to the craft or make his way back to the mine where he was sure his brothers would head. He was confident EOS would take care of keeping the Hood or anyone else out of their craft, so it seemed the better option would be to track back to the mine. Maybe he would be in time to prevent his brothers being snared as well.</p>
<p>It was getting more and more difficult to walk, and with no support from the trees now he was in the open, Scott began to stumble more and more. Blood loss coupled with the heat was making him dizzy, and he needed to stop. He knew that if he did stop it would be more difficult to get going again, so he pushed forward, following the grooves left by Two. </p>
<p>He didn’t see the stream. He was too busy noticing the footsteps heading towards where Two must have been parked. Getting out of the stream was a nightmare, and he was thankful that it wasn’t a steep bank, but he had travelled closer to the sludge Two had turned the stream into before he’d managed to escape.</p>
<p>Once upright again, having caught his breath back, Scott needed to know which way was best to go, and still-damp footprints gave him the direction he needed. He made the clearing just in time to see two of the four gunmen advancing on an unsuspecting Virgil.</p>
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